Praise from Ruby

June 3, 2012

In my neighborhood, I have a reputation for my deep love and passion for animals, and for being their voice. I try to keep it friendly so I can stay on good terms. It gives me the chance to educate when possible. I print out flyers with pet care tips and low cost clinics along with the importance of health care, spay/neuter, and other information. You don’t reach them all, in fact it seems very few, but now and then you do. It’s times like those, that encourage you to keep preaching (lol). I especially like it when one of the young teens come with their pit bull, that only months ago was ready to breed, and they say “can I have that information on getting my pit fixed again?” Then they bring him/her to you later and show you the suture site with the biggest grin on their face. That’s how I met Chico, Boysito and their family. I would see the boys outside with the dogs, and would point out concerns and give tips now and then. On Halloween, I put together candy bags with information on pet care along with the candy and hand them out to the trick or treaters. I had extra special bags for my next door neighbors, Chico and Boysito’s kids. That was in October of 2011. In March of 2012, my husband and I were leaving and I heard the lady next door talking to her son and he seemed upset. We came home later and the house was empty and the landlord was there. My first thought was for Boysito and Chico. I heard them barking in the garage and found from the landlord that he had evicted the family. My husband asked about the dogs for me, because the landlord didn’t speak English and he told my husband he didn’t know if the dogs had food or water or if the family was coming back. He wasn’t going in to find out because he was afraid and if the family didn’t come for them in a couple days, he was calling police or animal control. He gave me permission to enter the garage to check on them. It looked like they were given food and water, but had already finished it in a few hours. I fed, watered, and cleaned up after them while I searched for a group to take them if the family didn’t come back for them. I kept running into one brick wall after another. There was an old queen size mattress leaning on the wall in the garage, so I knocked it over for the dogs to lay on. Three days later, I came home from work to find the family there. One of the kids was checking on the dogs. They came to give more food and water. I was going out to tell them they had run out of food and water on the first day and that I had been taking care of them. That’s when I found out they were leaving them again. The Mom said she tried to find family to take her, the kids, and Chico and Boysito in, but nobody would allow the dogs. I informed her of short term fosters that will sometimes help. She felt this was not an option and asked me to please help find homes for Chico and Boysito. She said the landlord called and told them to get the dogs out. I asked if she could get a few more days and I would call places outside Aurora. Three more days I took care of them and kept trying to find a group to take them. They were out of time when on 3/28 a rescue group came forward to help me with them. I was soooo happy! I contacted their human Momma and she came and signed them over to me. I was so happy. The rescue asked me to transport the dogs to a clinic to be neutered, chipped, vaccinated and so on. Later that night after my son and I dropped them off, the lady from the rescue called with the bad news that she couldn’t take Boysito after all. She had no fosters or kennels to take him because he looks like he has pit in him. She felt terrible and so did I. I expressed my concerns about separating them, after all, they just lost their family, their home, and Boysito seemed very close to Chico. So much so, that he would cry loudly and become very upset when Chico was taken out of his sight. Although I knew the chances of them being adopted together were very slim, I couldn’t bear the thought of tearing them apart without at least trying. I figured they could at least be slowly weaned apart vs. being suddenly ripped apart all at once. It was a loss for the small rescue group since they get their money back through the adoption fees, but she agreed it would be better for them to stay together even though she wanted to keep Chico and place him through the group. But that left me back at square one, with nobody left to call. So I started calling the same ones over again, including Pet Project. I stepped outside with my own dogs to take a break. I cried, and prayed, and just said God, I let those poor dogs down! They counted on me and I couldn’t help them. It dawned on me that family was put next to us for a reason, and I thought this was it. The young boy, maybe early teens, had some personal issues. Along with his personal issues, he also had lost his Grandma about a year ago, now his home and his dogs. He felt he had nothing left and I believe that knowing somebody who loves animals so much was fighting for them, gave him some very small amount of comfort. So it hit me that for that very reason, I knew Chico and Boysito would be ok. At that same moment, Pet Project called me back! Between the calls, and the e-mails, the wonderful angels of Pet Project came thru for those precious babies!! I can never thank them enough! I could never do what they and other rescue groups do every day and night, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. Cases like this come my way maybe 4 times a year on average and the emotional roller coaster it takes me on is just more heartache than I can stand. So I stand and applaud you angels of Pet Project and all those other rescue groups out there! I don’t know where Boysito and Chico would be if you didn’t come to their rescue at the last moment. Chico is home with his forever family and I can’t wait for an update on him. :0) Boysito is still waiting for his forever family to come take him home, but the pictures Pet Project shares of him being loved on and played with, does my heart so much good. I will never forget what you guys did.